Take the Stairs Next Time

Take the Stairs Next Time is a horror game about being trapped in an elevator for Oculus and Leapmotion. It is a 2 two week project done in a team of 5 with the theme of “indirect control” – that is, a person who hasn’t played any video games before should be able to pick up and complete our experience without any explicit instructions given.

My group chose an elevator for the setting of the game because it is a space that is familiar with most people: pretty much everyone knows how to use an elevator, so we wouldn’t need to explain the controls of the game. The idea of a horror game came after brainstorming about how to make an elevator interesting. In addition, fear is a very powerful feeling that we can use to indirectly control the player… for example, we can use fear to make a player want to leave the building, letting us control their goal throughout the experience.